Sorry Apple, I’m still not ready to upgrade my iPhone

Last week, in light of Apple’s revised revenue guidance, my TC colleague Ron Miller made a tongue-in-cheek apology for taking so long to upgrade his old iPhone. He wrote that he had finally bitten the bullet and shelled out to upgrade a more than three-years-old (but still working) iPhone 6 for a shiny new iPhone XR ($750+) […]

View More Sorry Apple, I’m still not ready to upgrade my iPhone

The e-waste nightmare lurking in your kid’s toy box

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Welcome to Small Humans, an ongoing series at Mashable that looks at how to take care of – and deal with – the kids in your life. Because Dr. Spock is nice and all, but it’s 2018 and we have the entire internet to contend with.


Buzzing remote control cars, singing puzzles, peeing dolls, and animated T-rexes don’t just set off major headaches for parents dodging toys in the playroom. They pose a real hazard to the future our kids are inheriting. 

When a toy police car’s lights still flash but its siren no longer sings, it is often impossible to repair and nearly impossible to recycle the cheap embedded electronics. Very few toys are made with screws to enable anything other than a replacement battery. So, if the Mickey doll can no longer do the Hot Diggity dance, you might feel inclined to chuck the thing.  Read more…

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Social media in the midterms, e-waste culture, Amazon’s new headquarters: A tech news breakdown — Technically Speaking

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In this episode of Technically Speaking with Michael Nuñez, we analyze how Techtober hype feeds into holiday gadget shopping and increasing e-waste culture, unregulated election meddling via social media platforms, and Amazon’s media stunt to find a home for its new HQ2. Read more…

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View More Social media in the midterms, e-waste culture, Amazon’s new headquarters: A tech news breakdown — Technically Speaking

Apple’s new ‘zero waste’ ad is complete garbage

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The iPhone is hard to recycle, difficult to repair, and rendered needlessly obsolete by software updates — but Apple wants us to believe it’s “zero waste.”

A new ad published to YouTube earlier this week implores customers to switch to an iPhone on the basis of Apple’s supposed environmental bonafides. “iPhone is assembled in facilities that send Zero Waste to landfills,” the copy under the ad reads. “Life’s easier when you switch to iPhone. Switch today.”

Frankly, this is nuts.

If “zero waste” is true about the iPhone’s assembly, it certainly isn’t about everything that happens after. In fact, it’s easy for old iPhones to become waste themselves, because Apple makes it difficult to repair or recover the valuable components that make them work. Critical materials like cobalt, recently in headlines following a report that Apple will attempt to buy it directly from miners, are in limited supply but very difficult to recover from the gadgets they’re used in. There won’t always be “new” resources for use in our electronics, which should make companies ensure old devices last as long as possible. Read more…

More about Iphone, E Waste, Tech, Consumer Tech, and Iphone

View More Apple’s new ‘zero waste’ ad is complete garbage

Apple’s new ‘zero waste’ ad is complete garbage

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The iPhone is hard to recycle, difficult to repair, and rendered needlessly obsolete by software updates — but Apple wants us to believe it’s “zero waste.”

A new ad published to YouTube earlier this week implores customers to switch to an iPhone on the basis of Apple’s supposed environmental bonafides. “iPhone is assembled in facilities that send Zero Waste to landfills,” the copy under the ad reads. “Life’s easier when you switch to iPhone. Switch today.”

Frankly, this is nuts.

If “zero waste” is true about the iPhone’s assembly, it certainly isn’t about everything that happens after. In fact, it’s easy for old iPhones to become waste themselves, because Apple makes it difficult to repair or recover the valuable components that make them work. Critical materials like cobalt, recently in headlines following a report that Apple will attempt to buy it directly from miners, are in limited supply but very difficult to recover from the gadgets they’re used in. There won’t always be “new” resources for use in our electronics, which should make companies ensure old devices last as long as possible. Read more…

More about Iphone, E Waste, Tech, Consumer Tech, and Iphone

View More Apple’s new ‘zero waste’ ad is complete garbage